After dumping $3 million US into a study on an Alaska-Canada rail link, Premier Dennis Fentie is saying the unreleased findings of the report are actually just a pre-feasibility examination.

'There are going to be further feasibility requirements,' Fentie told a press conference last week.

The statement comes before the project's oversight committee has even heard the results of the joint Alaska-Yukon study on how to connect the North to the South by rail.

A combined total of $5.5 million US was spent on the project. It produced 225 documents proposing a T-shaped route with Carmacks as the hub and segments heading north to Delta Junction and south to a deep water port in the Inside Passage.

Fentie announced in January he, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Andy Carvill, grand chief of the Council of Yukon First Nations, would be meeting in the 'immediate future' to review the study.

But the Yukon is now still waiting for Palin to schedule some sit-down time, said Fentie.

He had wanted the governor to come to Whitehorse for the results, but now says her office is asking their Yukon counterparts to travel to Juneau.

'In the very near future, the principles of the oversight committee will convene,' Fentie again assured late last week.

The research for the study concluded in July 2006, before being passed to a financial advisory group.

In February, Alaskan media reported Paul Metz, a researcher with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, had stated the preliminary findings of the study showed the 1,900-kilometre track would cost between $11 billion and $13 billion.

The investment would likely provide access to resources that could generate between $80 billion and $800 billion in natural resource revenues, the Alaskan Journal of Commerce further stated.

In the fallout from the apparent leak, Palin was quoted in the Alaskan media as saying the rail project is not a top priority for her administration.

The only part of the study that has been released publicly is an index indicating the report includes documents showing findings on the rail link's relation with the proposed Alaska Highway pipeline, freight revenue, mineral deposit inventories, resources, an international land bridge, tourism traffic, political and legal issues and port analyses.

'We are providing the prerequisite information,' said Fentie.

If a proponent decides to go ahead with building the rail line, a massive feasibility study would need to occur looking at the engineering side of the project, said the premier.

'Our decision is not to build railways, it's to garner as much information as we possibly can,' said Fentie. 'That's responsible government.'

This wasn't the first feasibility study done on the project, NDP Leader Todd Hardy said today, and to now call it is a pre-feasibility study just doesn't make sense.

'That's insane. He's always called it a feasibility study before,' said Hardy.

He added he suspects the findings in the study may be damaging to Fentie's desire to move forward on the project and he is changing the terms to try to justify spending more money on further research.

'I'm extremely disappointed,' said Hardy. 'This is just going to be another report that gets chucked on the shelf.'

Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell said the latest delay is just part of the Yukon Party's government pattern of 'preparing to undertake to being a study.

'There seems to be an ability to take action,' said Mitchell.

The Yukon government has already spent $3 million on what initially wasn't labelled as a pre-feasibility study, he added, and Fentie should come forward and release the results to show how the money was spent.

'We've spent $3 million and it seems to be smoldering on the back burner,' Mitchell said.

The delay in scheduling the final meeting with Palin further shows the premier needs to develop relationships with jurisdictions, not individuals like former governor Frank Murkowski, said Mitchell.

Hardy said Palin not jumping onboard just shows, 'the Alaskan governor is a lot smarter than our premier. She understands this is an egotistical-driven project that will never materialize.'

Fentie just 'threw away' $3 million that could have been used to better the lives of Yukoners, said Hardy.